HISTORY™ takes you to the First Olympics where athletes often struggle to the death and victors were honoured almost as gods. The ancient Olympic games were savage competitions in which the athletes gave their blood and sometimes their lives in order to be called the best and to avoid the dishonour of defeat. Athletes were idolised not least of all for their godlike perfection of form. They were also idolised for their fearlessness and nerve, and contest bordered on the suicidal. Bloody boxing matches of gruesome voracity and chariot races in which few made it to the finish line. So as we prepare to honour new sporting heroes in 2012 spare a thought for these original Olympians, many of whom made the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit of victory.